Stocks end lower for fourth straight session

The Dow fell about 61 points, with a weak performance by banks and energy

June 6, 2011

Mario Picone, right, talks with fellow specialist Evan Solomon, left, as trader Edward Schreier works on his handheld device, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday, June 3, 2011. On Monday, stocks closed low, for the fourth session in a row.

The S&P 500 slipped 13.99 points, or 1.08 percent, to end at 1,286.17, breaking through the 1,295 support level earlier in the session. Some experts believe 1,227 is the next support level for the S&P.

“There’s still a significant fallout from Friday’s lack of jobs creation, which has raised questions around government spending in jobs creation programs,” said Tim Speiss, Chairman of the Personal Wealth Advisors for EisnerAmper.

Speiss said markets will continue to trade sideways until September when he expects the economy to start seeing a turnaround.

However, some strategists at UBS believe that while equity markets are likely to remain volatile in the near-term, growth is expected to reaccelerate in the second half of this year, with the S&P finishing at 1,410.

Goldman Sachs dissected the reason behind the sluggish growth in a new report, saying growth will probably rebound in the second half of the year as commodity prices drop back and any Japan-related disruptions unwind.

Bank stocks declined across the board, extending last week's decline, following chatter that Washington is thinking of increasing capital requirements.

Among individual names, Wells Fargoslipped after Rochdale downgraded the financial giant to "sell" from "neutral." This also comes after Moody's downgrade warning last week. The rating agency also cautioned Citigroupand Bank of America.

Goldman Sachs could release documents to counter a Senate subcommittee report that said the bank misled clients about mortgage-linked securities, according to the Wall Street Journal. The banking giant faces probes by several government authorities into derivatives trades it executed in 2006 and 2007.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off the firm's develeoper's conference to unveil the much-anticipated iCloud, a music-streaming service that the company hopes will power its next stage of growth and popularize Web-based consumer services.

Also on the tech front, Sony fell after news of a cyber-attack on its European website, extending recent losses made in the wake of earlier hacking incidents that resulted in data breaches. In addition, Nintendo also said it suffered an attack on its network but that the hackers hadn't obtained customer data.

Lowes declined after JPMorgan cut its rating on the home-improvement chain to "neutral" from "overweight."

Starbucks gained after BMO upgraded its rating on the coffee-house chain to "outperform" and boosted its price target on the stock to $45 from $40.

Packaging producer International Papersaid it made an unsolicited bid to acquire smaller rival Temple-Inland for $30.60 per share, worth about $3.3 billion. Shares of Temple-Island skyrocketed more than 40 percent in extended-hours trading.

Oil prices slippedwith U.S. light, sweet crude slipped $1.21 to settle at $99.01 a barrel, while London Brent crude traded around $114.

Oil drillers were under pressure, led by Halliburtonand Nabors, tumbling more than 4 percent each.